Collision
by Pandas On Fire
Summary: Rainpaw, a quiet, obedient apprentice never even being outside her own Clan makes an unlikely alliance with a bold, troublemaking loner with a dangerous secret. A prophecy looms over their heads, and they must defeat the demon who holds a terribly dark power to save everyone they know. But what if the biggest danger actually holds the most secrets about both their pasts?
1. Prologue

_Rainpaw, a quiet, obedient apprentice never even being outside her own Clan makes an unlikely alliance with a bold, troublemaking loner with a dangerous secret. A prophecy looms over their heads, and they must defeat the demon who holds a terribly dark power to save everyone they know. But what if the biggest danger actually holds the most secrets about both their pasts?_

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**Prologue**

A thick inky smoke layered the land, hanging low above the bare, rattling treetops against a crisp, chilling wind. A tired black hawk cried a shrill, mournful call as it circled above the dark world, wingtips touching the grey sky.

Aside from the groups of feral cats that lived in the forests and hills, there was barely any life. Birdsong was growing fainter and weaker by the second, and only a few small creatures could be seen scurrying amidst the tall grass and undergrowth. Taking a closer look at the wild cats, it could be clearly seen that their pelts were dirty and not groomed well, their bodies were sickly thin, and their ribs could be seen through their fur.

It was a dark age. Winds howled and the temperature dropped colder and colder. Prey was scarce and dying by the second. The cats had nothing to live on. Just bits and scraps of a meal were extremely precious now. The drastic, sudden and unusual changes brought hunger and aggression to the Clans. It wasn't just cats being weak and hungry in their own Clans. The four, whenever met at the borderlines, would break out in sudden accusations and fights. Nothing was peaceful now.

A prophecy loomed overhead, one that the Clan cats didn't know about and one that StarClan couldn't decipher. Not yet.

_"In the age of the demon, elements of the universe will merge as one and clear the world of death and darkness."_

A pale grey she-cat, her body half-transparent and glittering with tiny stars, emerged from a large cloud of mist up in the sky. Her deep blue eyes were dull and troubled. A dark brown tabby tom followed close behind the first.

"Is there something wrong, Willowstar?" the tom murmured to the grey she-cat.

Willowstar looked down upon the land and sighed. She could look through her paws and see to the trees, but the lifeless place was no longer beautiful.

"The Clans," she replied quietly. "They have been in battle, with aggression and hunger taking its toll on them. I don't know how long they will last, Birchclaw."

The tomcat lowered his head and narrowed his amber eyes. "They are strong, Willowstar. I'm sure they'll be fine. This definitely isn't the first difficult season they've had to live through."

"No, not just that," the grey she-cat murmured. "The prophecy, everything, it just seems . . . different from usual. I do not know what it means yet."

Birchclaw sighed and sat down, his faint pelt twinkling in the heavens. "Me neither. We just have to wait and pray that everything will be explained, that the Clans will get through."

"Pray?" Willowstar narrowed her dull eyes. "Who can _we_ pray to? We are the dead. The living pray to the dead, but the dead — "

" — Pray _for_ the living," Birchclaw finished confidently. He looked at the StarClan she-cat with a leveled gaze. "We cannot do everything for them, but we can warn them, help them, guide them through. The rest is up to themselves, but I trust they'll figure everything out. They have before, they will now. Don't you agree?"

Willowstar looked down. The bare trees, the lifeless, dark earth and the chilling atmosphere. Something was definitely not right, but Birchclaw had sense in his words.

"But this is something new, I can feel it. This is something bigger than what they've faced before. Before it was only Clan against Clan, cat against cat. This time there'll be something else," Willowstar whispered lowly, turning to look at the brown StarClan tom.

Birchclaw didn't flinch. A breeze ruffled his fur. "Maybe, but I believe difficulties will be overcame. I have faith. Don't you?"

Willowstar felt the intense amber gaze on her pelt. She sighed reluctantly and nodded with a weak smile. "I . . . I do. I always did."

"Good. And I will too." Birchclaw smiled as well and followed her away when they saw a few more starry-furred cats walk out.

However, no masked smile could hide what was really inside their minds. All the blurry questions and worries that they couldn't quite decipher, didn't really know. Below their world in the moon and stars, fangs and claws were colliding, insults and threats were being thrown across borderlines, and blood was still being shed.

The whole Clan territory, and miles beyond that, suddenly became darker and darker. The clouds became heavier, hung lower, and became an intimidating, unusual pitch-black color. All of a sudden, dark green leaves started wilting, falling and dying right in front of the cats' paws. Tree branches crinkled and gnarled, became grey and black instead of healthy golden brown. Rivers dried, plants shriveled, and a giant shadow spread throughout the land. Everything became duller, darker, and only the blood seemed to still pierce through the inky surroundings.

Through the dying trees, black clouds and coal-colored smoke, beneath the drying leaves and splattered blood on the land, hidden deepest within the darkest cave, two glowing crimson eyes opened.

Thousands of cats' and other creatures' lives were sucked away at that instant. Trees died all at once and the crippled fragments of dried leaves just vanished into the air. The world became dreary and darker than ever.

And a demon was born.

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**A/N: My first Warriors fanfic! Well, first one that I published. I wrote a lot of others that I didn't publish on FFN. But I hope it's okay so far. I promise it'll get way more exciting later on, and the other chapters will be much longer because this is only the prologue. Please review! Thanks! **

**– Darky**


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One **

A young she-cat huddled deeper into her nest of soft moss in a shadowed den. The apprentice's breathing was steady and shallow, in a light sleep. Her ear twitched as she felt another familiar presence nearing her.

Blinking open her deep blue eyes, the she-cat looked up, finding herself looking straight at the face of a large brown tabby tom. She yawned and stretched, getting up quickly and knowing the drill.

"Rainpaw, we're going on a hunting patrol," the brown tabby mewed to his apprentice. "Thornfang and his apprentice Lionpaw are also coming along." As he saw the grey she-cat standing up, he started to pad away. "Meet us at the edge of camp behind the warriors' den."

Rainpaw yawned again and gave a weak, sleepy nod in the tabby's direction. "Yes, Oakbreeze, I'll be right over."

She shook out her pelt and exited the apprentices' den. The apprentice saw the cloudy sky above. Tiny specks of drizzled rain fell down slowly from the grey clouds and covered her pale blue-grey pelt like a fine veil of mist. Rainpaw smiled, liking the refreshing feeling.

"Rainpaw! Come on!" a voice called from ahead, snapping the young she-cat out of her thoughts.

"Coming!" Rainpaw meowed back, shaking herself and trotting over immediately.

She saw a golden tomcat and a larger grey tabby tom standing with her mentor Oakbreeze up ahead.

"Hey, Rainpaw," the golden tom greeted as she neared.

Rainpaw gave a small smile. "Hi, Lionpaw." She nodded toward his mentor Thornfang as well.

"Alright, we'll be hunting near the stream," Oakbreeze told them as they started walking deeper and deeper into the forest of ThunderClan territory. "It's best to split up and hunt. Thornfang, you can take Lionpaw, and me and Rainpaw will search somewhere else."

Thornfang nodded in agreement. "Right."

Rainpaw could see the stream ahead as they continued moving along. It flowed gently, weaving perfectly around the damp, smooth stones that jutted out of the mud. Even though it was half-hidden by bushes and leaves, she could still see some bits of glistening white and silver at the tip of the small waves.

Lionpaw looked up to Thornfang expectantly as they approached, waiting for instructions, and Thornfang took the apprentice tom over to a small clearing to search for prey.

Rainpaw watched as the two went and then stopped in her tracks as her mentor halted in front of her. She saw Oakbreeze lift his muzzle up, tasting the air. The blue-grey she-cat could also smell a foreign, filthy scent.

"We're near the ShadowClan border," Rainpaw remarked.

Oakbreeze nodded. "The borderline is still some distance away, but we should be careful just in case." He flicked his tail and suddenly diverted his gaze to some bushes when the leaves rustled. "I sense something."

Rainpaw pricked her ears as well. _Squirrel_, she knew. Just as she thought, a small brown creature with a bushy tail leaped out of the bushes and stood straight, a nut in its little paws. Its dark, bright eyes were wide as its flank moved up and down rapidly. Rainpaw steadied her breathing, slowly lowering herself into the hunter's crouch that her mentor had taught her and started to move towards her prey. Oakbreeze hid into the shadow of some trees and watched his apprentice intently.

Rainpaw unsheathed her claws as she slid forward as silently as she could on soft paw pads. The squirrel seemed to be alert but unaware of the exact danger it was going to face. The she-cat narrowed her blue eyes. The prey tilted its head, ears perked and tail pressed close to its body. Rainpaw could feel the squirrel's tiny heartbeat as she pressed close to the ground. She was only a few whisker-lengths away now. Any second now and the prey would be —

_Crash! _

The squirrel's eyes flew wide and it suddenly bolted away at the loud sound nearby. Rainpaw lunged forward, but the small creature had gotten a head start and there was no way she could still catch it now. She pricked her ears and searched for the source of the noise.

Oakbreeze's fur bristled as she stepped out of the trees irritably. "What was that just now? Sounded like a tree falling. It scared away the prey."

Rainpaw looked around. "I'm not sure. Maybe it is a tree. But why would a tree just suddenly fall?"

All of a sudden they heard voices up ahead, becoming louder and louder. Not just one or two either, it was many voices altogether, shouting, yowling and arguing.

Rainpaw's eyes widened and she knew Oakbreeze had heard it too. "It sounds like it's coming from over the ShadowClan border." She glanced over the borderline hesitantly and shuffled her paws, as if wanting to go out of curiosity but not wanting to at the same time.

Oakbreeze narrowed his green eyes. "It's too dangerous to go. There could be a fight and we don't want to get dragged in as well, Rainpaw. It's their business."

Rainpaw backed away and murmured something in reply. She knew her mentor was right, and a large part of her told her it was a bad idea. She shouldn't go.

"Come on, we'll go find more prey somewhere else. One failed catch won't bother us, right, Rainpaw?" Oakbreeze talked in the background, but the young she-cat wasn't focused on him right now.

Sighing, she followed her mentor as he padded away. She kept shooting glances over her shoulder, looking back and peering through the leaves. The voices grew fainter and fainter as she walked further away, but the yowling didn't stop. She heard crashing, crackling, and noises unlike any usual fight.

Rainpaw couldn't take it anymore. Her mind told her to go back, her paws wanted to drag her over to the others too, but the lingering spirit of pure curiosity would not fade.

Slipping away silently, the blue-grey she-cat scurried over to the ShadowClan border, oblivious to Oakbreeze who was distracted by something else. She hid behind a large boulder near the borderline with some bushes nearby and slowly poked her head up, trying to get a view of what was happening. Her eyes widened as she saw a small group of warriors in a clearing, obviously ShadowClan due to scent, fur bristling, tails lashing and claws unsheathed as they crowded around something . . . or, rather, some_one_.

A young golden tabby she-cat stood in the center, ears flattened, eyes narrowed threateningly at the other ShadowClan cats, and Rainpaw's breath caught in her throat in surprise as she realized the golden she-cat couldn't have been much older than herself. But it seemed she wasn't part of ShadowClan. In fact, Rainpaw didn't recognize her at all.

She strained her neck and pricked her ears, trying to hear what they were saying.

" . . . Must get off of ShadowClan territory now! We don't like loners on our grounds!" a jet-black she-cat, her lips curled in a snarl, hissed at the smaller golden tabby. Rainpaw recognized her as the ShadowClan deputy, Ravenheart. About five or six other strong warriors growled as well.

"No." The golden she-cat stood, fur bristling, dark emerald eyes narrowing. A faint, bitter smirk played on her lips. "Don't tell me what to do. I go where I want."

_What is she doing? Why is she provoking them? _Rainpaw thought, eyes widening as she clawed at the boulder anxiously. _She isn't even unsheathing her claws! She needs to get ready to fight! Does she know what she's getting into?_

Ravenheart snarled and another cat stepped up, a muscular ginger tomcat.

"First of all, just who are you?" the ginger tomcat demanded.

The young tabby she-cat didn't flinch or budge. "Just who are _you_?" she fired back.

"Embertail, warrior of ShadowClan, and I don't like loners on my turf," the dark ginger tom growled lowly, his tail lashing. "That's it, mange-pelt, listen up 'cause I'll only explain it once. Keeping up your stubborn attitude will only get you ripped to shreds. Now be a smart little cat and get off our land."

"You say you'll rip _me_ to shreds?" The she-cat still wouldn't move. Instead she sat down, head high, just to emphasize her point. "I'd like to see you weaklings try."

Ravenheart's eyes bulged out in fury and she lashed out along with the others. Rainpaw held back a frightened gasp and her blue eyes widened to the rim.

_No, no! There's no way she can survive all those warriors! _Rainpaw winced and sank down, shutting her eyes. She kept repeating to herself that it was her choice that resulted in what happened, but a pang of fear and worry still struck her.

"I scent something else!" one of the ShadowClan cats cried out amidst the yowling and claws colliding. "It smells like . . . ThunderClan!"

Rainpaw's breath stopped. She clenched her teeth and turned and fled away as fast as she could, her heart pounding as her paws touched the hard earth and leaves below.

As she ran, a blinding flash of white light suddenly lit up the sky for a heartbeat, but then died away as quickly as it came.

Rainpaw didn't have time for further questions. She darted through the forest and could only relax when she saw the familiar faces of her Clanmates some distance up ahead, worried and irritated looks on their faces. And all of a sudden she realized that she could no longer hear the yowls of anger in the background. Everything was dead silent except for the drumming of her own heart, the thumping of her paws on the ground and the gentle stream in the distance.

She looked down in shame as she approached her mentor, and deep in her heart, she knew she shouldn't have done what she did. But all the blurry questions overwhelmed her. What was that blinding flash of light? What happened to those ShadowClan cats? Specifically that one she-cat. Who was she, really, and what ended up happening to her?

But as the questions started to fade, Rainpaw realized some things were better left unanswered and unknown.

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**A/N: Was it good? Bad? Please tell me what you think. :) Thanks for all the reviews in the last chapter. That was more than I expected and I'm so glad people like this so far.**


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